RSS

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This page was created by the Spring 2006 RSS Evaluation Team as a place to collect documentation and resources regarding RSS web feeds.

The 2006 RSS Evaluation Team worked together from March 23 until June 12, 2006. For more information on the evaluation, please visit the 2006 RSS Evaluation website.

Contents

Basic Documentation

What is RSS?

RSS is a web feed.

What is a web feed?

  • A web feed lists new articles, giving at least a line or two of each article and a link to the full article.
  • Subscribers to web feeds can quickly scan several lists to find new articles that might interest them.
  • A growing number of websites provide web feeds.

What does a web feed do for me?

If you visit websites that change or add content regularly…

  • You can subscribe to websites you're interested in. For example:
    • news and announcements,
    • blogs,
    • tables of contents from recent issues of electronic journals.
  • The web feed gives you titles and summaries of new entries.
  • You can use an aggregator to list many sources in one convenient page.

If you regularly publish material on a website…

  • A web feed lets you publicize new entries — without sending spam.
  • A web feed lets you easily republish new material from other sites.

How can I subscribe to web feeds?

What format should I use to publish a web feed?

  • Currently, there are three main formats:
    • RSS 1.0, the "RDF" format from RSS-DEV (RSS-Development Group), related to RSS 0.9, and RSS 1.1
    • RSS 2.0 from David Winer, owned by Harvard, theoretically finalized as the culimination of RSS 0.91, 0.92
    • Atom (developing as an IETF standard)
  • RSS technology is developing rapidly. It would be premature to settle on a format to support.
  • Most readers read any format.
  • Atom holds the promise of becoming an IETF standard, but for now, RSS 2.0 is still the most common format.
  • "Atomic RSS" (RSS 2.0 conformed to Atom) seems like a good transitional strategy for web developers who are coding their own interfaces.
  • Commercial products (Dreamfeeder, etc.) do not generate Atomic RSS code. For now, RSS 2.0 seems the simplest option for most web developers and content providers.
  • Best practice will connect each RSS page with a style sheet (CSS or XSLT), so that web surfers will see an intelligible layout when they look at the page in a web browser.

RSS Basics: Introductory Orientation

Penn RSS Information

Penn RSS Feeds

Formats of Web Feeds

Resources

Mash-ups and More: RSS Beyond News Feeds

Macromedia RSS/ XML information


The Spring 2006 Evaluation Team

Team Information

Spring 2006 RSS Evaluation Team Website

Team Addresses

Timeline of Objectives

  • May 8: preliminary report to SUG
  • May 22: report to IT Roundtable (postponed)
  • May 22: "Why RSS" session with WebSIG
  • June 12: report to SUG

Meeting Agenda

Weekly meetings for the main RSS Evaluation Team Wednesday 10-11 in the Bits & Pieces Room, Sansom West 3rd Floor. Archive of Agenda

Meeting Minutes

Archive of Minutes

Team Process

The main RSS Evaluation Team divided into sub-teams to investigate various aspects of RSS use at Penn:

RSS Basics

  • Raising awareness and providing basic information for: our team members, sysadmins, web developers, content providers, and end-users of RSS.
  • (Vern Yoneyama, Jay Treat, Eileen Callaghan, Steve Minicola, Debora Weber)

Aggregators

  • Members to review current product offerings and determine a "short list" for evaluation
  • Members would evaluate and test both web-based and standalone products
  • Browser Plug-Ins
  • Examples: Sage, Google, Yahoo, Firefox plug-in, Net News Lite, Thunderbird, Safari, Netvibes
  • (Jackie Eschbach, Scott McNulty, Steve Strawser, Nykia Perez)

Technologies for Web Development

  • Evaluate RSS Dreamfeeder with Dreamweaver
  • Ways to use Contribute? Other CMS? Blogs?
  • Pass-Through Aggregator for redistributing other people's feeds
  • (Raymond Rorke, Jay Treat, Jennifer Yuan, Jackie Eschbach, Tony Robertson, Ian Kelley)

Creation and Validation/Format (RSS 2.0 vs. Atom)/Styles (XSLT and CSS)

  • Research as to current industry leanings
  • Research with respect to what Penn organizations are using; local trends (Law, Wharton, PennPortal, Library, etc.)
  • Database-driven RSS feeds
  • (Steven Tomcavage, Steven Minicola, Scott McNulty, Jay Treat)

Miscellaneous Policy Issues

Both technical and non-technical considerations in the deployment of RSS, which may include:

  • Security (encrypting the data streams, if practical?)
  • Security (server- and client-side issues)
  • Intellectual Property
  • Syndication
  • (Barbara McAleese, Vern Yoneyama, Jennifer Yuan, Peggy Yetter, Randall Sindlinger)

Background information

Retrieved from "http://prowiki.isc.upenn.edu/wiki/RSS"
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